


Hero in a What?

by cat_77



Series: Flufftober 2018 [8]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Immortal Husbands, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-07-28 06:04:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16235669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cat_77/pseuds/cat_77
Summary: It was a damned turtle.





	Hero in a What?

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt of “pet.”
> 
> * * *

Personally, Alec found the whole thing ridiculous. Or at least he had at the beginning. Shadowhunters did not have pets. They were a liability. Aside from the time it took to properly care for some little fluffball, the enemy could grab it and distract you with your want to keep it safe. Not to mention the fact you should be using your spare time to train yourself versus to get some drooling menace not to pee on the carpet.

But it wasn’t a fluffball. 

It wasn’t something that could escape at a key moment.

It wasn’t something that could wander around on its own to become a pawn in a greater battle.

It was a damned turtle.

They had investigated an attack on a young warlock, her entire townhouse in shambles. She had clearly fought the intruder with everything she had leading to downed bookshelves and singed curtains.

And a cracked aquarium housing a lone turtle.

The woman was nowhere to be found. Magnus was certain she had survived, but even he had trouble figuring out just where she had disappeared to. Clary had argued that they shouldn’t leave the thing to die and had Magnus on her side despite the way Jace just rolled his eyes in the background. Magnus fixed the glass and the broken heat light. The hard shell had been scratched, but had served its purpose of protection and no harm had come to the creature itself.

Somehow this led to the aquarium and its occupant being transported to the Institute. Specifically, everything was transported to Clary’s own room, a space readily cleared for her new pet. Alec had muttered something along the lines of her not paying attention to any other rule, so why should this be any different and she had simply grinned in response.

She had named the thing Leo for some reason. Simon had cackled and found a strip of blue cloth to wrap around the bottom of the tank. Alec had no idea why either of them found it so special considering it had two large tears in it right in the middle, but was reminded that both were raised as mundanes and didn’t question it any further than that.

The scratch on Leo’s shell eventually faded to a grayish silvery mark. Jace had teased that Leo was really meant for the Shadowhunters as he had his own rune. Upon closer inspection, the way the scratch was shaped across the almost mosaic shell really did look like the rune for calming anger. 

Not that he ever knew this from going to visit the sucker after a particularly horrible day and watching it’s slow and methodical movements while it - and he - basked in the warmth of the light.

He watched it again now. It was nearly a full century later and the aquarium had been upgraded several times, Leo always settling in and carrying on just fine and a drape of blue always being added for some reason. He had asked Magnus if the creature had been bespelled and his husband simply shrugged. Tortoises lived long lives, he knew this. He also knew the creature had been a pet of a warlock and that there was a fair chance something extra was going on. 

They had found that warlock several decades back. She was healthy and hale and all that. She had vanquished her attacker and lived on. She had missed her little friend, but was happy that he found the home he needed and neither begrudged them for taking him in nor wanted him back.

So now Leo held a spot in his own home. He was comfortable and familiar and maybe a little bit of a reminder of times gone by. He was never sad when he did his near weekly meditation with the little guy, only contemplative. So much had changed yet, as Magnus had promised him it would, but so much had also remained the same.

He never did figure out why someone added two miniaturized swords across the back of the tank though.


End file.
